80' tall mega tree-Pipedream???????

[duner10]

I would love to introduce an 80' mega tree made with three to four colors in the middle of the town square. I have recently been handed the responsibility of lighting up our town for Christmas the next 5 years. I am curious if this is possible to do safely. I have had many people coming up to me saying how they can't wait until next year. Getting nervous and it is still a year away.

[Surfing4Dough]

A place to start: http://forums.lightorama.com/forum79/23959.html

http://andrewschristmas.com/mega.htm

[Santas Helper]

You will want to plan out your guy wires as there will be many of them (or should have). Will they be ground mounted? If so, how can you protect the public from them. Or, will they be building mounted? If so then contacting the adjacent building owners on attaching guy wires.

When you're dealing with common public venues and something that size, you have to look at every single angle and possibily of mishap. The biggest concern is guying it from wind, storms and any other issues that might cause potential hazards to the public.

Then protecting the tree from violators. Will it be fenced off? Liability can come in to play on some of the stupidist actions people do, but yet you are liable if they get hurt.

Make sure you have a plan to present early in the year (now would be a excellent time since folks/businesses are thinking about it).

Structure of the tree and how it is secured is the real concern which should be your first priority. Will it be a tower structure? After this is all figured out, the rest is play time. Lights, sequences, music, decoration.

I raise these concerns because I've been in the same boat but with a smaller tree. But the hazards and risks are all the same.

One little request. Can you add your location under your name (in your profile)? It will help us out in helping you... now and in the future.

Good luck,

Tom

[duner10]

I just reallized you are from OKC. Thanks for the help. You point out several things I need to think about. This will be done on the courthouse lawn. How many guy wires do you think are needed for a 60' tree made using a CB Tower. I was planning on using red, green, and white lights like the Andrews have done. It appears they are using 4 controllers. 1 for the white straight up lights and star and then the other three are used for the tree. Each color red, green and white appears to be ran on 16 channels with each channel controlling 4 strings making a total of 64 strings of each color. If I am off base let me know. This will be a fairly expensive project so I don't want any surprises. I have never seen a mega tree of this size in person and just hope I will be getting the best bang for my bucks. I also need to know when and where to buy my led light strings in order to get the best price. By the way, my wife says I am crazy. Please help...

[Santas Helper]

Thanks for updating your location and I see we aren't too far apart.

If you want, you can stop by my house and get an idea of what I have currently set up (35" mega tree using tower sections) and can show you some things to do or not do and things to think about. I know you will be okay with your future plans but homework will be a biggie in getting it done right and safe.

As for lights? Go LED for less power consumption and I would recomend from CDI, but that's just me. If you go commercial, purchase commercial lights. It really does make a difference. I heard they will have a sale in January or shortly after that. Good deals too.

And your wife is right. You are crazy. So am I and a bunch of others. That's what makes it fun and the right thing to do.

PM me if you want to visit in person and I'll provide more info. I really don't mind.

Tom